Agile methodologies and marketing were once buzzwords, mostly used in the tech startup circles. However, today, more companies and global leaders are adopting agile practices to stay ahead of the competition in a continuously changing technology and customer landscape. Agile marketing also offers companies several benefits. Here are a few agile marketing case studies that show why you should adopt it.
The digital landscape is changing fast. Customers visiting a website can abandon it if the page does not load within three seconds. A few hours of delay in responding to a customer query may lead to the person moving on to the next service provider. Advancement in digital technology has empowered customers to expect better service from companies. Companies that adapt and respond to customer needs faster are reaping the benefits. Those that are not are running the risk of becoming irrelevant. According to a studyOpens a new window by Agile Sherpas and Aprimo, 53% of agile marketing teams are able to shorten the time-to-market.
In such a scenario, companies can no longer hold on to old-school marketing models and plans. Marketing teams should be fast and flexible to respond quickly to the changes in market conditions and stay relevant to customers. To achieve this, they need to adopt agile marketing principles and methodologies.
Learn more: Transform Marketing Organizations with an Agile Marketing Approach
The Benefits of Agile Marketing
Agile marketing allows companies to run tests, evaluate results, iterate, and deploy solutions rapidly. Organizations can use agile methodologies at scale to run multiple new ideas and campaigns simultaneously. Agile marketing offers several benefits to the organizations:
- It improves the productivity, transparency, and measurability of the marketing department.
- Teams can run rapid iterations to see what works and repeat what succeeds.
- It enables teams to communicate, collaborate, and respond faster in critical moments. Teams and organizations can also react more quickly to changes in the market. This ability gives organizations a competitive edge.
- It brings cross-functional teams such as technical, marketing, and sales together to identify and work toward common organizational goals.
- Teams can collect data and inputs from other teams to augment marketing efforts.
- Marketing teams can run data-driven campaigns.
- Organizations can create if-then scenarios to tweak marketing campaigns based on their performance and customer responses.
- It brings organizations closer to the digitally savvy customers. It enables teams to interact with customers in near real-time, consistently across touchpoints. All these improve customer satisfaction.
If you are still unsure whether to adopt agile marketing, here are a few case studies of companies that successfully implemented agile marketing practices and reaped the benefits.
Case Study #1: Dell
Dell is a multinational technology giant based out of the United States. The company has about 200 people in the marketing department worldwide. The department constitutes search engine, lead generation, field marketing, web, channel marketing, and other aspects of marketing.
The company was earlier facing a problem where people across different product lines and portfolios did things differently. There were several gaps and points of disconnect between the teams and things that were not repeatable. The company felt that there were inefficiencies, and they could get better results. Hence, it decided to reorganize the global marketing team into an agile formation, which was more aligned with the product families. The company then trained all their marketing personnel in HubSpot’s inbound methodology, which was persona-driven.
After reorganizing the team and implementing the inbound methodology, Dell had a common language and process for its programs. The worldwide marketing team across all the product lines started operating with 30-day sprint cycles. Within seven months of implementing the agile and inbound methodology, its marketing team started seeing its benefits.
In an interviewOpens a new window Greg DavollOpens a new window , former senior director of marketing and product GM, Dell said, “I think when you are trying to find your product market-fit with a new offering, it’s an iterative process. It’s nearly impossible to get right the first time but if you iterate, you’ll hone what matters most.â€
Case Study #2: Teradata
Teradata is a provider of database and analytics-based products, software, and services.
Teradata believed that it had been slow, and there was a need to become faster and more responsive. The company implemented an agile marketing methodology to primarily improve communication during the projects. It also implemented agile principles to use data in a more effective way to quickly run micro-campaigns and enhance customer interactions.
Lisa ArthurOpens a new window , former CMO of Teradata, helped the company’s marketing team adopt agile methodologies. Teradata started implementing agile processes in its marketing department in 2009 and took about nine months to make the shift. The company required internal collaboration and coordination with Gartner to implement agile methodologies successfully. The marketing team automated the workflows and approval processes. They also defined who within the company and Gartner had to be involved and when.
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Teradata still uses agile practices in its marketing and software development. It uses the same integrated marketing software it sells to its global customers to extract data-driven insights and improve its go-to-market (GTM) processes. Implementing agile led the company to do more effective marketing and improve relationships with its customers.
ArthurOpens a new window says, “Marketing needs to be agile, to be nimble, and to get to market sooner, rather than later, to drive revenue and excite consumers.â€
Case Study #3: ING
The ING Group is a Dutch multinational corporation that offers banking and financial services. The company’s primary businesses include retail banking, investment banking, commercial banking, direct banking, asset management, and insurance services.
ING felt that it was a giant that was extremely slow in the race against fast emerging and growing fintech startups. The corporation also felt that customer expectations and behavior were rapidly evolving owing to the emergence of new digital channels and digital leaders in other industries. ING felt that it had to make significant changes to continue to provide seamless and consistently high quality services to its customers.
ING’s CEO, Nick JueOpens a new window , and a few top officials decided to visit a few innovative brands such as Netflix, Google, and Spotify. The banking corporation introduced the agile way of working in 2015. It started with the group headquarters in the Netherlands to demonstrate that businesses can begin with the core. The company created 5-6 pilot teams while simultaneously reorganizing the headquarters from the ground up.
The company modeled itself on Spotify’s ‘Tribes, Squads, Chapters’ modelOpens a new window as a method to scale agile resourcing. The model emphasizes the importance of network and culture and focuses on communication, autonomy, quality, and accountability.
The following video explains the agile way of working at ING.
ING’s approach to agile improved its time-to-market and productivity and increased employee engagement. The corporation also witnessed reduced handovers and bureaucracy and improved customer experience despite being early in the transformation.
Case Study #4: CafePress
CafePress is a famous online retailer that provides stock and user-customized merchandise. The company also sells themed gifts. Most of the merchandise the company sells are related to current events and popular culture.
CafePress wanted to implement agile marketing methodologies to improve its interactions with customers with social media. The company also wanted to collaborate with its consumers in real-time as they uploaded their designs.
Learn more: Modernizing Customer Experience (CX) for a Mobile-First World
Jason FallsOpens a new window , former vice president of digital strategy at CafePress, joined the company to build its social media presence. Falls took steps to improve internal communication and invested in customer service. He believes that interacting with customers on social media platforms requires flexibility and speed. Hence, the company also hired a specialist to handle customer complaints and queries on social media. During implementation, the company learned what its marketers should and should not do on public platforms. Based on their learnings, CafePress made changes in their agile processes.
Falls believes that maintaining a close relationship with the company’s legal team is essential to marketing agility. Accordingly, the company brought their marketing and legal teams together. The legal team actively participated as a consultant in marketing decisions. This practice made it possible for the marketing team to handle social media interactions better.
The Way Forward
Adopting agile marketing practices has already helped several companies respond faster to changing customer demands and needs. According to a studyOpens a new window by CMG Partners, about 80% of the CMOs said that adopting agile marketing helped them deliver a better and more relevant end product. In an ever-changing marketplace, having an agile way of thinking and working is what will help companies stay relevant to customers and maintain a competitive advantage.
What benefits has your company achieved from adopting agile marketing practices? Do let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .     Â